Training Shinso

Chapter 16: The Truth

——

"And that's everything. You mustn't tell anyone this secret.

...Shinso?" Wiping his sweaty hands on his trousers, Midoriya stole an anxious glance at Shinso as they sauntered alongside each other. Hitoshi slowly came to a stop, frowning at the ground before looking up at Midoriya.

"I don't really know what to say. This is a lot to process."

"It's okay, you can take your time."

"So, when you said your Quirk manifested before the entrance exam, that was actually All Might passing down One For All to you."

"That's right."

"And you can see...dead people. Like that kid from the Sixth Sense."

"Um. O-only sometimes and only the previous One For All users, but I suppose."

"Is this how you managed to break free from my Quirk?"

"Yes." Midoriya rubbed his arm, "I'm sorry I lied to you about that."

"It's okay. I understand why you did." Shinso gave him a sincere look, "Thank you for sharing your secret with me. I won't tell anyone about it. And if you need help finding out more about One For All, I'll gladly do my best to help you. I still don't get how my Quirk is able to affect yours, but whatever I can do."

Izuku's eyes glistened, "Really? Thank you, Shinso!" He bowed. Hitoshi sighed, "Don't, it's alright. I don't see why you made a big deal out of all this, anyway. What did you think I'd do?"

Izuku straightened and bit his lip. "I was just being paranoid. I thought you might be mad at me for lying to you."

Shrugging, the boy replied, "You had a valid reason to, so I don't mind."

Izuku nodded then hesitated for a moment, his expression becoming dull. "Shinso, I think—maybe we shouldn't train together any more. I've really enjoyed these past few weeks and I liked helping you out, but—after what happened this morning—if it's gonna put you in danger, I just—"

"Midoriya." He interjected. "I've appreciated you helping me out. I can't thank you enough. But I don't want this to be the reason we stop training together. It sounded to me like my brainwashing was allowing you to access more areas of your Quirk. I still don't get what it is exactly or this predecessor thing but maybe instead of shying away from them, you should be working towards communicating with them more and finding out more about them. My Quirk can help you do that, can't it?"

"Possibly, I guess. But sometimes it causes my Quirk to go beserk and sometimes it doesn't. It's too much of a risk and I don't want to hurt you, Shinso."

"You won't hurt me. Can we just try it. You've been helping me with my Quirk for weeks so now let me help you with yours."

Midoriya thought it over in his head for a while. He sighed, "Fine, we can try it once. If anything bad happens, we're stopping immediately. If I think it's safe enough, I guess we can continue with both my training and yours."

Shinso smiled with relief and nodded. "When are you free?"

"We could try tonight, after school, perhaps? If you don't mind, I'd like All Might and maybe Kacchan to be there too, just to make sure you definitely won't get hurt."

"Alright." Shinso put his hands in his pockets, "We should probably get to class now, we're really late."

"Oh crap, yeah," Midoriya exclaimed. He glanced around, "Uh, how do we get out of the forest?"

——

After school, the small group met up in the gym. All Might was seated on a bench, Bakugo was leant against the wall and Midoriya and Shinso were stood in the middle of the room.